Beta Land
This is the Beta Elements page... for now! Eventually when/if games on this page get their own article their section will be moved to their own page. Super Mario Bros. *Mario was originally going to be twice the size of his sprite in the final game. *The development of the game began with a 16x32 pixel square which couldn't jump and moved around a single screen. After taking note of the sales for Mario Bros., the creator of "Super Mario Bros." asked Shigeru Miyamoto for permission to use Mario, who allowed it. *The game was initially a shooting game, allowing Mario to carry weapons such as a rifle and a beam gun. The Up button was used to jump and A used whatever item Mario held or kicked if he was empty-handed. *The game was initially divided between ground and sky segments, the latter of which had Mario riding a rocket, which became a cloud in later stages of development, and shooting enemies. The sky-based bonus round of the final game is a remnant of this idea. *The game originally scrolled from screen to screen (such as Metroid) instead of being a sidescroller. *An unused enemy is in the code, and when spawned with hacks, it appears as a glitched Buzzy Beetle that doesn't move. *Track 10 and 18 are an unused Game Over theme with different, plunkier sounding instruments and a "Hurry up!" variation of the short theme played before Mario enters an underground or water level. *An object that Mario can climb up or down like a vine. It makes a "buzzing" sound as you climb, as though Mario is repeatedly hitting his head on something. It can still be placed in-game with a level editor. Although it appears as a brown flagpole ball, the actual 16×16 metatile that is used is unique to this object. *Enemy object 1E is a short Firebar that rotates counterclockwise quickly. However, unlike its clockwise counterpart 1C (used only in World 5-4), this type is never used in any valid levels. *The upper 2 bits of first level header setting byte determines the starting timer. The timer starts at 200 if this setting is set to 3 (11xxxxxx), though no valid level actually uses it. *There are two identical scroll stop objects: 46 and 47. Only 47 is used by the game's valid levels. *Map 01 (Worlds 2-2 and 7-2) has a 3rd level pointer for World 3, which leads to the same place as the normal World 2 and 7 level pointers. It is possible that levels were rearranged during development, or it could be a simple mistake that was left in. *RAM address 03F0 keeps track of the number of blocks hit, though no routine ever reads the value stored here. * The bricks and Bowser's bridge may have each used four unique tiles at some point in development, judging by the arrangement of existing tiles in the CHR data. It's possible that the addition of the block behind the title logo necessitated the removal of the extra tiles. *Although Bloopers normally appear only in water levels, they can be placed in non-water levels just fine and will award a whopping 1,000 points when stomped. Most other "impossible" ways to kill enemies, like hitting a Podoboo or Bowser with a Starman, only award the default 200 points. Given that Bloopers appear in non-water levels (such as World 1-3) in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 and award 1,000 points, this behavior was likely intended all along. Super Mario Bros. 2 *The title and story screens originally used a different color palette, including tans and oranges instead of red and blue. *On the original character screen, an ellipsis divided "EXTRA LIFE" from the number of lives remaining, which was later used in Super Mario All-Stars. *Peach originally had more hair. *The B button originally wasn't used to run like it was in Super Mario Bros. (and later Super Mario Bros. 3). *Originally a magic lamp was used to access subspace (the area that the potion takes the player to when he drops it). *Originally Wart only needed four vegetables thrown at him to defeat him, and the ending gave the player a certain amount of Prize Money depending on how many times they died. Super Mario Bros. 3 *Originally there were golden Cheep-Cheeps and green Para-Beetles, which were faster than their normal counterparts. *The game has an item-sized Toad icon in the code among some of its suits, assumed to be some type of "Toad Suit" by most people. It is actually a Hammer Suit with palette errors, appearing in 7-8 to give Mario that suit. *Mario originally had the ability to become a centaur with a certain power-up. *A possible bonus game involved a "?" block surrounded by smaller "?" blocks inside a "?" block was originally in the game. *Koopa Troopas and Hammer Bros. originally hosted two minigames, a Dice Block game and Question Block game. The minigames and their hosts were replaced by Toad and his minigames. *Fifteen extra levels exist in Super Mario Bros. 3, some of which are unique and some of which bear much resemblance to levels in the final game. The back of the box of some early copies also show Mario in a hilly grassland level with many Para-Beetles and two Note Blocks, but this level is not in the final game nor is it one of the extra levels. *Mario originally had sprites showing him standing in a minigame area, as big as the minigame hosts, with different-colored overalls. Other unused sprites include Small Mario walking without moving his hands, some castle sprites, sprites of spikes and a wheel, and an unuversed underwater propeller. Super Mario World *Click here for Super Mario World. Mortal Kombat *Shang Tsung originally had an animation where he would place his hands on his hips and laugh in triumph. A similar animation would be used in MKII during the roll call. *Shang Tsung was originally supposed to have a Fatality where he would quickly lop off the victim's head with his katana but it was removed. Shang Tsung was the first character to be given a Fatality but this was later scrapped in favor of giving the playable cast their own finisher. *Goro was originally to have a special death animation where he would fall on his knees, turn to stone and crumble. Only four sprites of this exists, the last being half of his body gone, presumably having been blown apart by Raiden. The rest of the animation appears in Mortal Kombat Trilogy, as unused sprites. *Johnny Cage originally had a separate animation for jumping back. It could be assumed that at some point, the other characters would have their own jumping backwards animation. *Before the T-Unit release, there was a counter left over in the Game Audits that listed ERMACS, shorthand for Error Macro which was left over to from unrelated arcade called Smash TV to resolve bugs that occurred in the game. Kirby's Adventure *Click here for Kirby's Adventure. Mortal Kombat II *Shao Kahn, Kintaro and the ? box were not present in the beta footage shown for the Battle Plan. *Raiden's 2P outfit was originally his default color and was shown in promotional shots. Sub-Zero also had an aquamarine tint to his clothes. *Shot footage of MKII in the working stages had originally shown Johnny Cage with the word Otomix written on his trousers. Daniel Pesina at the Galloping Ghost Arcade revealed that it was edited out due to copyright issues in later revisions but it can still be seen if Shang Tsung's Soul Steal is performed on him. *Baraka was originally have an attack where he would spin in place with his arms and blades extended to deal consecutive damage. This was removed due to an unfair advantage though the sprites for it still exist. He was later given this move back in Trilogy. *He also had an attack where he would plant his blades into the ground and use them as support as he flipped over to kick the opponent. *Shao Kahn's hammer would have originally debuted with him in this game and swung it horizontally. He also had a double axe handle attack. Only this move would be used in Trilogy. He also possessed another attack where he would extend his hands and clapped, causing a fanning shockwave to shoot out in front of him *There is a sprite where Shao Kahn would rise from his throne and discard his scepter. This was likely to be used upon Kintaro's defeat. *Shao Kahn would reach his hand into some sort of portal where a glitchy object (possibly his hand, but giant) would drop onto the ground. It could be presumed to be some sort of unused finisher for him. *Kintaro was originally to have some sort of grab but there appears to be no sprites for him throwing or attacking the opponent in some fashion. He seemed to have some sort of breathing animation that was never used. *Kung Lao was originally to have a Torpedo attack exactly like Raiden's but was removed. He is given it back in Trilogy. Additionally, there exists FX sprites for his hat during his winpose and headbutt that gave it a more distinct shine. *There exists sprites for Sub-Zero performing his Ice Blast while airborne. He also had access to Reptile's Invisibility sprite animation but he uses it instead to freeze himself, appearing slightly glitched. *Noob Saibot originally appeared as early as Revision 2.0 but wasn't finished. He instead incorrectly loads Jade's palette but he is able to perform Stage Fatalities. His name is incorrectly displayed and "Feel the power of--TOASTY" is not announced when he wins. Donkey Kong Country *Donkey Kong Jr. was Donkey Kong's original sidekick. *Diddy Kong was originally called Dinky Kong, which became Kiddy's Japanese name later. *There was originally a nighttime version of Jungle Hijinxs. *Originally, 100 bananas or more could be gotten without the counter resetting back to 0. *Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong may have had no differences originally, as Donkey Kong could not defeat Krusha or Klump by jumping on them. *Sprites for a Puftup, a jungle plant, and poses and animations not appearing in the final game are in the game's code. There are also enemy palette swaps, but only a few. *Cranky Kong was originally much friendlier and Slippa was originally named Hister in the English version of the game. *There might have been a giraffe animal buddy in the original game that would allow Donkey Kong to crawl up his neck to reach high items and secrets, but this could be a joke by Rare about a fan who requested a giraffe to appear in a Donkey Kong game. *Some sprites that have been found in the game's code include a mechanical Kremling, a different version of Rambi's horn attack, a different look for the tire, a busted Continue Barrel, a collapsing barrel, mini-Dumb Drums that could be horizontal or upside-down, fuel drums with 4 or 2 units, a different explosion, a 1-up balloon with Donkey Kong's face on it, a broken phonograph horn, some type of shadow, a silver sparkle, a red arrow and "EXIT" not on signs, a Necky feather, some fish, and a smaller version of the oil drums and their flame. Mortal Kombat 3 *The "FIGHT" that appears at the beginning of a round originally matched the game's normal font. *Smoke originally had a black background with the usual text. *The Battle Plan music had a howl-like sound at the end. *Liu Kang originally used voice files shared by most of the male characters. *Sheeva used voice files from Sonya and Sindel, although she still uses these voices on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. *None of the characters' names were said. *The Soul Chamber didn't have music. *Sektor, Cyrax, and Sindel didn't have their names on their health, and when they won, they would be named KETCHUP, MUSTARD, and MUCHAHA. *Cyrax was originally named Robocop. *None of the characters could bleed in an early version. *Nightwolf had an attack for throwing two tomahawks and could have a large barrier formed in front of him. *Shao Kahn's hammer swing was going to be in this game, but was replaced with an overhead swing. *Motaro could grab and throw his opponent upwards and could also point at his opponent and talk, similar to Shao Kahn. He had an ending image in this game, used later in his Trilogy ending. *Ermac's Animality and Classic Sub-Zero's Friendship sprites are still in the game. *Sheeva originally had a unique skeleton when killed by Kano's Skeleton Rip. *A large drill is in the game's files, possibly a Stage Fatality. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 *Although Sheeva is not normally playable on the SNES version, she can be played as, but is very glitchy as all but her Babality sprites are gone. *Chameleon was originally to appear in the home ports but the only thing left of him is his name when he wins. His health bar calls him RAIN and he looks like Scorpion. Mortal Kombat Trilogy *An early trailer showed Rain and Noob Saibot using recolored portraits from MKII and none of the bosses were present on the character select. *The Nintendo 64 version had its names on the health bars moved to the left, causing Player 2's to go outside of the health. The 64 version was also supposed to have the same main menu options as the disc versions and the screen resembled UMK3's. *The Kombat Cheats was supposed to have one more option, 1 Hit Deaths, but it was removed. *Kahn's Arena was in the N64 version originally but was left out. *Shao Kahn, Goro, and Kintaro had Babalities. *Noob Saibot's Disaber was a solid black glossy ball and no cloud would appear when it hit an opponent. *Shao Kahn was going to be normally playable in the Nintendo 64 trailer. *Shang Tsung could morph into Khameleon and Shao Kahn. *Raiden would be black when standing up and this color appears in the final game when he's kicked by Motaro. *The UK version has a soundbyte existing for a character named Aqua. Kirby's Avalanche *Normally if you hold down A+B+X+Y on Controller 2 on power-up or reset, you will get the expanded "Custom" and the additional "Special Custom" menu, but only with the first four options. Use the code 80FFF002 to expand the additional "Special Custom" menu to include even more options, and will also make it instantly accessible without requiring the button code. Many of these options are identical to their counterparts in Super Puyo Puyo. **Fall Blob - how fast the blobs fall **Mode **Stage - You must choose the Learning Stage after choosing a character to get this to work. Starts the game from any stage. **CPU Player - doesn't seem to work? probably related to 2P mode **Time Disp - displays CPU usage by dimming the top of the screen **Link Volm - number of blobs required to make a link **Hard - Normal or Special **Sousai - the offset rule from Puyo Puyo Tsu, or at least a prototype version of it **Price - something to do with how fast blobs fall **Ojama Score **Hi Speed *The Sound Test's "SOUND 02" plays a drum loop song that is unused in the rest of the game. *The buttons on the SNES controller during the tutorial have a rainbow palette to match the Japanese and European controllers. *The non-American versions of the game yell "Trapped!" upon getting one or two combos. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest *There was an early version of Kackle, named Mr. X, who was a Kremling with red eyes, a black jacket covered in army medals, and small hooks for hands. He also has a scimitar on his belt. *Klaptraps were originally reused instead of introducing Klampons. *Web Woods had no fog, Lava Lagoon had no lava, and Mainbrace Mayhem and Krow's Nest took place during the storm that happens in Topsail Trouble. *Squawks was originally going to be used in Parrot Chute Panic but was replaced by Flapper, his blue palette swap. *Ghost ropes originally appeared in Crocodile Cauldron. *Nintendo Power previewed the game with Gloomy Gulch being called The Haunted Forest, Krem Quay being The Swamplands, Krazy Kremland being Kremland Amusement Park, and K. Rool's Keep being K. Rool's Castle. Kannon and Kruncha were called Klumpa and Krusha and Kremkoins were called coins of the Krelm, which might have been an error. *K-O-N-G letters were in the game originally. *Diddy and Dixie originally had strange sprites referred to as "Mourning," which some believe were removed because they were too sad. Diddy's Mourning animation featured him taking off his hat and holding it while walking and Dixie's had her crying while also walking. A possible use for these animations would've been for failing a bonus game, as they are quite close to the "bonus game victory" sprites. *Zingers originally had a green version (which was also present in Donkey Kong Country), Flotsams had red and yellow versions, and Flitters had tuquoise, purple with blue wings, purple with green wings, and red versions. *An unfinished level similar to Web Woods is in the game's code. Diddy and Dixie drop from the top of the map, landing near a DK Barrel, and aside from two Zingers, the level is devoid of objects. The cave at the end of the level cannot be entered unless the game is hacked, which leads to only finding random tiles all over the place. *Due to a programming error, three music tracks, which are a death theme and Diddy and Dixie's victory themes, do not play during Kaptain K. Rool's battles, which forces the game to play K. Rool's theme throughout the entire level until it ends. *Stickerbush Symphony (bramble levels) was originally meant to be played in underwater levels, but since there weren't any normal underwater levels (instead being replaced with Ship Hold levels) it was almost removed, then put into bramble levels. Kirby Super Star *Click here for Kirby Super Star. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! *Bazzas were originally eels, not barracudas. *Kopter has unused animations in the game: standing, taking off, and defeated. Kracka also had sprites in the game, but ended up not being used until the GBA version. *Kuchuka also has unused animations, showing him being picked up and thrown. *There are sprites of what appears to be a Lurchin revolving around something without showing his weak point, which was likely originally intended for Barbos' fight. *There are animations for Dixie and Kiddy jumping in the maps. *Arich's Ambush originally had an animation that shows a flickering light through the holes, but the final version has darkness. *Squawks' "hurt" sprite from Donkey Kong Country 2 is in this game too, but is unused. In Donkey Kong Country 2, when Flapper was jumped on, his sprite became the Flapper-palette version of the "hurt" sprite Squawks uses in this game. *Baron K. Roolenstein originally had straight fingers in his electricuted sprite. Mortal Kombat 4 *In the Beta 1.0 version, there was no Versus screen. *The game had a stylized font instead of its more standard one. *The Run meter was blue. *The Arcade mode towers were in perspective, with the easiest being the closest and the hardest being the farthest. *One of the earliest revisions had Noob Saibot on the character select. *None of the characters had bios. *The N64 version has a hidden Skull stage where characters fight inside a skull-like arena. The first time playing, the arena loads wrong and is completely black, but restarting the match will fix it. *The Elder Gods stage had a calmer music tune called Eldest Gods, which was in the official soundtrack. *Sub-Zero and Shinnok's names were said differently. *Reiko replaced Noob Saibot as a playable character, but Noob stayed in the later revisions and appeared in Beta 1.0's Attract Mode. *The final opponent was chosen by random originally and when the "boss" was beaten, a message saying "GREAT JOB!" would appear on a black screen before going to the Enter Your Initials screen. *Fujin was called God-o-mite during development. *In the beta trailer for the Nintendo 64 version, Liu Kang is seen with an unfinished and unused alternate costume that looks like a Shaolin monk, even with a shaven head. *The console versions originally had Kitana, and a small bit of her is still in the Nintendo 64. Her name is in the game and her fans work, but there's no voice file for her name and she occasionally uses male voices. She appears with tanned skin and a darker version of Tanya's clothes due to lack of textures. Mortal Kombat Gold *The character select screen was bigger, not only showing the returning characters but also Goro, Noob Saibot, and two "?" slots, one of which was most likely Sektor. The returning characters also had different portraits. *There was a character named Belokk, removed due to time constrants. He is said to be similar to Shinnok in fighting style. All that's left of him is Tanya's portrait spinning like Shinnok, Reiko, and Cyrax's, which all spin to show that they unlock Goro, Noob Saibot, and Sektor. Super Smash Bros. *Super Smash Bros. was initially developed by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their downtime, in a form titled Dragon King: A Fighting Game, which lacked Nintendo characters. Sakurai, however, felt that the game could not provide the proper atmosphere on a home console without Nintendo characters, and they were soon added and the game was renamed. *In the final game, two beta Kirby stages are only playable with a GameShark. The stages have strange elements, such as invisible barriers. A working Dream Land stage can be viewed in the "How to Play" tutorial, which itself can be seen by waiting on the title screen. Also, in the character select, the question mark boxes were supposed to be colored and Saffron City had pink with purple on the rooftop. *Bowser, Mewtwo, and King Dedede were originally planned to be playable, being scrapped due to a lack of development time. It is believed that Pit, Wario, Princess Peach, and Meowth were also considered at some point, though this has considerably less evidence. *Also, according to a recent talk between Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata, Sakurai revealed he intented to add the Final Smashes in this game; with the proof he already had the voices effects when the characters uses their Final Smash, but for some limitations the Final Smash had to wait 9 years until the launch of Brawl. In fact, just a few of these sound effects are already in the game, but as mentioned, were never used. These sounds include Ness yelling, "PK Starstorm!", Pikachu charging energy, and Captain Falcon saying, "Come on!" Other characters heard include Kirby and Link. In addition to the unused Final Smash clips, there are three unused Announcer voice clips: "Are you ready?" "Final Stage" "Bonus Stage" and an unnamed Fanfare. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards *Early art shows Kirby's animal buddies being in the game when the final game only has a cameo of them in the form of Stone Friends. *There are a few unused rooms found in the code. **ABE200 is a plain green room with Adeleine in it. **ABE100 is a wide open area for testing different kinds of terrain. Each colored square uses a different matieral and is labeled in Japanese. There are a few blocks. The materials read from left to right, Ice, Snow, Sand, Wood, Cloud, Grass, Iron, Mud, Slippery. **ENETEST1 is empty, so Kirby falls forever in a grey void. It was likely used to test enemy behavior, perhaps more specifically enemies that don't interact with the ground. **ENETEST2 is a large room with a high ceiling and a painfully colorful grid on the back wall. It was likely used to test enemy behavior. **ITEM01 is a very wide room that contains lots of food and some Invincibility Candies, Yellow Stars, and Blue Stars. There are also blocks and pools of water with no collision. **BREAKTEST1 is a basic room with some blocks to jump on. Some kind of broken background effect is used, causing a white wavy texture to be overlaid in front of everything. **On a side note, EXERCISE0 contains the entire How to Play demo in one room. *There are three unused songs. **The first is a remix of the first animal friends theme in Kirby's Dream Land 3 and can be heard in the Sound Check as "Music 002." **The second is the classic victory dance theme. **The third is the shorter version. *The Japanese version has sushi as a food item, which is changed outside of Japan to a sandwich. This continues a running theme of removing Japanese foods that also appeared in Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Star Stacker. *The Sound Check has three sounds that sound like sped-up Japanese. They are theorized by some to be Adeleine talking in an early version of the game where Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and Dedede were playable. Luigi's Mansion *Click here for Luigi's Mansion. Super Smash Bros. Melee *A large gray stage with an image of a pub in the background is accessible with an Action Replay. This stage is a test stage where Corneria's music plays. The debug menu calls the stage TEST. *Four other stages, AKANEIA, 10-2, IceTop, and DUMMY, can be found. 10-2, IceTop and DUMMY freeze when normally accessed but can be accessed through other cheats, while AKANEIA has never been accessed. *The debug menu itself, accessible with the Action Replay, allows for complete editing of anything in the game, making Giga Bowser, Fighting Wire Frames, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and Sandbag playable, although Sandbag can't attack and trying to do so will freeze the game. *Originally, there were only ten starter stages: Princess Peach's Castle, Kongo Jungle. Great Bay, Brinstar, Yoshi's Story, Fountain of Dreams, Corneria, Pokemon Stadium, Mute City, and Onett. Brinstar was on the top row and Corneria was in the middle on the stage select. *The Motion-Sensor Bomb was originally a Proximity Mine from Perfect Dark, but was changed, most likely due to copyright infringement, to a motion-sensor bomb from GoldenEye 007, and the game's name was changed from Perfect Dark to "TOP SECRET." *Temple originally had an elevator leading to the bottom of the stage and two strange platforms that appear in the Special Movie when Peach is introduced. The laboratory in Great Bay could be walked through. Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Island, and Mushroom Kingdom were all different originally, with Yoshi's Story having a twisted platform, Yoshi's Island having more, smaller blocks, and Kingdom being more similar to the original Mushroom Kingdom. *Pokemon Stadium had different element icons that looked like the icons on the Pokemon trading cards. *"Eagleland: Onett" was titled "Eagle Land: Onett" and had different music. *The Japanese website has a screenshot of the character select screen with Zelda's box replaced with a "?," implying that she was unlockable. Super Mario Sunshine *Click here for Super Mario Sunshine. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee *Baragon was planned to be playable in the PS2 version, but a PS2 version was never made. *Jet Jaguar was removed due to him looking like Ultraman. *Godzilla 1954 and Spacegodzilla were removed because two Godzillas were in the game, but were both added to Godzilla: Unleashed. *Kiryu was removed from the North American GameCube version because his movie, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, wasn't released outside of Japan yet. He was unlockable as Mechagodzilla 3 in every other version of the game. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance *An early screenshot showed a darker background on the character select and in-game normal text was used for the characters' health bars instead of italics and their portraits. The health bars looked rougher, similar to in Mortal Kombat II. *Kenshi originally was named Blind Kenshi. *Shang Tsung's name was originally "ShangTsung." *Several different styles and weapons were used instead of what's in the final game. *Mavado was originally a matador-like character named Matador. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land *Kirby's Adventure had an easter egg where a room could be found with Star Blocks spelling out "HAL." This room is still in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. The original version included a Broom Hatter on top of the L, but it's missing from Nightmare in Dream Land. *There are many remaining debug rooms, all with a specific purpose. **Room 149 is the main debug hub. Either doors are present, but only five work. They lead, from left to right, to Rooms 14A, 14B, 14C, 150, and 151. **Room 14A is a general test of level building and tiles. Two doors on both sides of the room lead back to the main hub. **Room 14B is a test room for various slope types. Same two doors as 14A. **Room 14C is a test room for breakable blocks and the Fire Lion. The breakable blocks, strong blocks, and bomb blocks are labeled in Japanese with "Easily," "Hammer," and "Bomb" respectively. Same two doors as 14A. **Room 14D is inaccessible from the hub and is a test of air and water currents. Two doors lead to 14E, but one door is practically impossible to access due to the water currents surrounding it. **Room 14E is a debugging room for icy surfaces and spikes. One door leads back to 14D. **Room 14F is a cannon test room for testing the general functionality of cannons as well as the vertical scrolling they cause to Kirby. There is no entrance or exit to this room. **Room 150 is a debug room possibly used to test Kirby's interactions with various surfaces when near the bottom of the screen. A door leads back to the hub. **Room 151 is mostly empty except for Bugzzy, obviously a miniboss test room. A door leads back to the hub. **Room 152 is a general test room for the most common tile types. There is no entrance or exit to this room. **Room 153 is a test room presumably for testing Kirby's interactions with various surfaces while near the top of the screen. The top row of tiles cannot be accessed due to the screen borders cutting them off. *There's an ability icon in the game that has text translating to "Fire," but spelt differently than the final Fire ability's icon. *Even the debug rooms have unused tiles. Most of the unused tiles are taken directly from Kirby's Dream Land 3. There are also more unused tiles that have Japanese text on them translating to Fire, Stone, Ice, Needle, Broom, Umbrella, Electricity, and Cutter. These are the Kirby's Dream Land 3 abilities. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker *An Adult Link was sketched but never modeled. He was originally supposed to grow during the course of the game, more subtly than in Ocarina of Time, but it was too difficult to implement so the idea was scrapped. *The Skull Hammer was originally differently named and designed during development. *Link's clothes were to have the same color scheme as his original The Legend of Zelda clothes, and the clothes were changed to the current colors late in development. *Link originally had a sneaking ability, which was probably used in the Forsaken Fortress and replaced with the current hiding in barrels. *Ice Ring Isle and Fire Mountain were going to be the locations of full dungeons, but these dungeons were scrapped due to time constraints. *A Water Temple was possibly originally found on Greatfish Isle. *Dragon Roost Cavern originally had a different layout. *A mysterious item named with Japanese text translating to "Water Boots" is in the game's code, but no model appears when it's used and the animation for putting the boots on and off is the same as the Iron Boots, possibly meaning the Water Boots were Iron Boots with different functionalities like sinking into water, also hinting further as the possibility of Greatfish Isle originally having a Water Temple. *Strangely, until surprisingly late into development, the A button was for the sword and the B button was the roll command. The sword button icon also changed to reflect the enemy weapon Link was using if he picked one up. *Concept art of two islands not included in the final game is in Hyrule Historia: Stovepipe Island and GC Island. Stovepipe was a volcano island full of steam and smoke with a hot spring lake and magma valley, entered through the volcano's crater. GC Island was to resemble a GameCube, which concept was used in the game's direct sequel (Phantom Hourglass) with Dee Ess Island. Wario World *Wario had a long-sleeve shirt. *Glue Globes had no texture. *Wario couldn't move when using the Wild Swing-Ding. *There was a different logo and different punching sounds. *The Heart Gauge was originally larger and had a lighter shade of red. *Different kinds of gems and coins had their own gauges. *Mummies with flowers on their heads and scorpion-like creatures are some enemies that were not in the final game. *SandWorm looked different. *A screenshot shows an Ankiron in a basement of the Horror Manor, although Ankirons in this level normally only appear as Skeletal Ankirons. Kirby Air Ride * There's an alarm that starts playing when Kirby is dangerously close to a death plane; however, normally the cutscene showing Kirby falling and respawning plays before it has time to trigger. The closer Kirby is to the death plane, the faster it blinks. *There are five unused level maps which are all accessible through the Debug Menu. **DUMMY is an empty void where either Kirby drives on the ceiling or the camera hasn't been configured yet. There's a large area to drive on, but it's not infinite and Kirby will infinitely fall into a bottomless pit if he drives off the edge. **TEST is an ice-themed track featuring a short lap, some star-shaped marks on the ground that don't seem to do anything and a small tunnel before the finish line. The game will crash if you try to load this track unless ENEMY REQ is switched off in the Debug Menu, suggesting that the map attempts to load a no longer existing enemy. **TEST6 is seemingly a driving test environment and is laid out in the manner of the Drag Race levels. To the left is a large square area containing Japanese characters representing terrain types like grass and water. This area can only be accessed by turning around at the start and driving across invisible ground. Kirby can return to the Drag Race area at any point, but a strange one-way wall blocks him from leaving if he goes too far in. If he drives off the map, he will fall for a little while before the drop notice shows up very briefly and Kirby dies. There's a finish line at the north end of the Drag Race track and a peg at the beginning, but it's otherwise feature-less. **TEST7 is also a Drag Race-type level, but there are five steps where the level drops down with increasing heights. The first two drops are small enough to not allow the Warp Star to fly, but the last three are steep enough to let it do so. At the bottom of the fifth step, the drop notice activates. It also activates if Kirby turns around at the start, strangely, meaning it isn't triggered by a set height. There's a finish line at the end of the track, a checkered wall to the left, and a simple mountainous skybox not used anywhere else in the game, while the track itself is snowy. **SIMPLE2 is a test track that contains every single course feature in the game, all marked with Japanese labels. Terrain types, obstacles, moving surfaces, grind rails, and destructible objects can be tested here and the map itself is a big checkered square. *A crash debugger will appear if the game crashes in debug mode. *There are a few differences between the US and Japanese versions of the game. **The Nintendo logo is white in Japan and red in America. The start screen also says "PRESS START" in Japan and "PRESS START/PAUSE" in the US. **The Records menu's options (Best Records and Checklist) are switched between versions, with Best Records being on top in Japan and Checklist being on top in US. The checklist itself also only has the number of completed and total challenges in America. *Kirby Air Ride has a debug menu that is one of the biggest debug menus ever in a GameCube game. For reason of its length, it has its own separate page here. SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom *Shiny objects originally resembled crystals. *Tubelet enemies had a laser. *The Kelp Forest was set in the daytime. *Sandy originally slid on her back in mountain levels. *The Bubble Bash originally used a normal helmet. *Soccer balls originally replaced watermelons, possibly just as a placeholder. *Robo-Squidward was originally planned but was taken out, only appearing in the Game Boy Advance version. *SpongeBob originally didn't smile while idle. *Patrick's original attack was a headbutt. *Two robots, Larry the Lobster, and some background characters were originally in Patrick's Dream. The dream was also supposed to be different and include ice cream in some way. *In the unused Patrick's Dream level, you can be warped to the real Patrick's Dream. Mortal Kombat: Deception *In Chess Kombat, the characters had their names on the board with their chosen class below their health bar. *Konquest Mode had a different display for current time. *Sindel used Eagle Claw as a fighting style, which was leftover from Kitana. *Ermac's Telekinetic Slam had no effects to it. *Noob Saibot originally used Havik's alternate costume until he became his own character. *Li Mei used a morning star. *Yin Yang Island did not change with a flash. Mario Power Tennis *The game was originally called Mario Tennis like the original. *In the intro of the game, Toad and Toadette are on the score chart when Wario and Waluigi are drawing on it. Either they were going to be playable and Nintendo forgot to remove their faces, or they simply filled in a space. Super Mario 64 DS *The original name of the game was Super Mario 64x4. *The courses were originally chosen from a menu on the touch screen instead of Peach's castle. *Originally the player could also switch between all four characters with the touch screen. *The caps were originally in boxes labeled M, L, and W. *Wario originally wore a long-sleeved shirt like usual before switching to the short-sleeved one he wears in the final game. *The castle was originally surrounded by Goombas like in the original Super Mario 64. *All four characters could be used at once in a multiplayer mode originally. *Bowser could originally be fought under the castle at some point. *There was originally a purple bunny in the game, suggesting that Waluigi was planned to be added. *Red Koopa Troopas are in the game's code, and are fully functional. Unlike green ones, when a red Koopa sees the player it will run into them and knock them around like a Bully. When they get knocked out of their shells they walk back to it slowly. Red shells slide along the ground until hitting a wall and break when jumped on, unlike green shells. When Yoshi eats a red Koopa, he can breathe fire. *Originally Yoshi could fight Chief Chilly. Mario Superstar Baseball *The game was originally called simply Mario Baseball and had a different logo. *The Star Chances section showed what type the character was. *Mario Stadium had a white house with a gray roof in the background. *The view of Peach Garden while at bat showed more of the castle. Super Mario Strikers *There is various concept art with ideas for Mario's costume. *In an early build, the characters had near-equal amounts of both team colors on their jerseys and Wario's hat looked slightly different than his normal one. *Textures were originally brighter. *There were originally no items. *Captains were not the only ones with a special shot, but presumably all non-captains shared the same type of shot. *Captains had different super strikes, like Mario hitting the ball with a hammer as a meter appeared to determine how many other balls were created when the first was hit and the power of the strike. *Donkey Kong wore his tie originally. *There was no audience in at least one stadium, which in itself was different. *The game had a different logo. New Super Mario Bros. *Click here for New Super Mario Bros.. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon *The character select roster was much more narrow in width and could be rotated 180 degrees to access the other half. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess *Ilia was originally drawn with pointy ears like a Hylian. *Beth was drawn with a toy attached to her back. *Four enemies were originally going to be added, but were removed: the Armos Titan, which was a large Armos with his gem on his chest that fought with his fists; the Goron Golem, which was many Gorons that floated into the air and came together into a large monster; the Meter Giant, which looks like a car test dummy and was probably scrapped before it got a normal look; and the Moblin, which has only been seen once in a beta screenshot, and wore armor that protected most of their body. *Twilit Messengers originally looked much different, not having tentacles or masks, only being creatures with sharp teeth, long arms, short legs, and no eyes. *Gohma was originally in the game and would chase Link through a cave at some point, but was replaced with Armogohma. *Kargaroks originally had the ability to keep their normal bodies in the Twilight, but were later Twilit. *Originally an enemy called "Sluggula" replaced the Torch Slug. *Many dead trees originally appeared in Hyrule Field. *A strange place called the Beta Forest was shown in a trailer for this game in 2005, featuring a roaming giant, a pack of cats, a pack of dogs, Bulblins, Stalfos, Lizalfos, a statue enemy similar to the Temple of Time statues, and the original form of the Twilit Messengers. *Also in this trailer was Stalfos with the ability to become Stalhounds upon defeat. *A canoe, possibly ridable, was originally found in Ordon Village. *The Twilight Realm was originally only black and white. *A trailer also showed Link in a fishing area similar to the Fishing Hole in his Ordonian clothes. *The game originally had a magic meter, possibly used for Magic Armor and the next beta item. *The game originally had Fire Arrows, Ice Arrows, Dark Arrows, black Rupees, black Chus, blue fire, and a "surf leaf," presumed to be a leaf used for snowboarding through Snowpeak. *Green and Black Chu Jelly were originally able to be used normally, but their programming was left unfinished. Green Jelly is in the Wii version of the game, created by a yellow and blue Chu, but it's useless and was probably meant to refill the Magic Meter, and the Black Jelly can be found on either version through cheating, taking one heart from Link when he drinks it. *Midna's hair was originally orange-blue instead of orange-yellow. *The transformation cutscene that happens when Link first enters the Twilight was originally different. *Link could originally perform a spinning back slash. *Link's voice actor was originally the same one from Ocarina of Time. *The Hyrule Castle sewers originally had more soldier spirits. *The Ordon Shield looked different originally and Colin and Talo can be seen with the beta model of it. Godzilla: Unleashed *Hedorah required complex cel-shading for his blob form as well as change of forms which were impossible to do on the Wii, getting him scrapped. His sound files and wireframe are still in the game but cannot be used. Hedorah is part of the Alien faction. *King Kong and Zilla were planned but were kept out due to rights issues and lack of popularity respectively. *Three new monsters were created in a vote on which original monsters would be added to the game: Fire Lion, The Visitor, and Lightning Bug. They lost to Krystalak and Obsidius. Fire Lion is an Earth Defender and Visitor and Lightning Bug are Aliens. Fire Lion is a lion with flames at the end of its tail and its mane, along with some fire on different parts of its arms. The Visitor has a whale-like head and four crab-like appendages growing from its back. Lightning Bug is mostly identical in appearance to a firefly. *Mechani-Kong, Gamera, and Bagan were planned as part of the Aliens, Earth Defenders, and Mutants respectively. *Los Angeles was scrapped due to already having three cities inside America. Toronto was scrapped due to time constraints. Both cities are playable but crash the game if any buildings are destroyed. *Osaka was originally going to have powerlines. *There were day and night versions of each city. *There is a building in New York quite similar to the White House, so it is possible that Washington, D.C. was another planned city and was also removed for the same reasons as Los Angeles. *Ebirah was going to be in the PS2 version of the game but was replaced by Battra. Super Smash Bros. Brawl *Some game world icons were the same as in the last two games but were changed to the current versions. *The description for the My Music options originally said "Adjust how often a song will appear on this stage." instead of "Adjust how often songs appear on stages." *Castle Music / Fortress Boss was originally intended to be used on Delfino Plaza (Super Smash Bros. Brawl). *Solid Snake was more muscular and had a gray suit, along with a different-looking mine used in his down-smash. *Wario Bike, Drill Rush, Summit, Halberd, Rainbow Cruise, and The Flowers That Bloom in the Echoes were originally Wario Chopper, Triple Dash, The Summit, Battleship Halberd, Rainbow Ride, and Flowers Bloom on the Notes respectively. *Scenes taking place before the Subspace Emissary's events were removed where Tabuu and his army take the Halberd as King Dedede accidentally stalls Meta Knight from stopping them. *Mario originally fought Petey Piranha instead of Kirby. *In the first trailer, Kirby does a vertical spin with his aerial side-special like in Melee, Zero Suit Samus uses a lightsaber-like weapon, and Pikachu's up-special has a different sound. *In the second trailer, Fox has his Blaster out the whole time instead of only when using it. *In both trailers, Link's up-special is used like in Melee. *Snake's grab was originally more accurate, shown in a beta picture depicting him holding Ike's arm behind his back and covering his mouth. When Snake grabs Sonic, Sonic puts his arm behind his back, showing that they didn't change his animation. *Unused files for Dixie Kong, Toon Zelda, Toon Sheik, and "Pra_Mai," most likely Plusle and Minun, are in the game. More files are found for Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, and Roy, leading to fans referring to these characters as the Forbidden Seven. *Ridley was previously an Assist Trophy. *Donkey and Diddy had different trophy designs originally. *In the E3 2006 trailer, there are many minor differences to the final version such as Mario having a slightly slower up-tilt. *Certain characters have battle damage textures such as Meta Knight's mask with large gashes over the eye slot and Captain Falcon's helmet cracked, implying that battle damage was once visible. There are also textures for Link's Ordon Sword and its sheath. New Super Mario Bros. Wii *Click here for New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Super Scribblenauts *Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts' spritesheets both include a female version of Maxwell, which was intended to be Maxwell's sister. *Three other constellations were to be included in this game, a notebook constellation, an apple constellation, and a car constellation. *Originally the adjective "telekinetic" didn't make the person's head bigger, only allowing flight. *Many objects were originally different-looking, such as the hydra, which was less detailed, the brontosaurus, which was grey and had larger feet, and the demon, which looked more demonic. Donkey Kong Country Returns *The Scurvy Crew were originally not the boss of Beach, and replaced a giant eel with a bandage on its face wrapped around a lighthouse. The eel didn't get a name, apparently. *The Volcano had a large banana boss that glowed red and shot fireballs. *Ferndozers were giant robotic barrel monsters and are only found in the art gallery. They were planned for Factory, and Donkey Kong was going to control one with a remote control at some point. *Rambi was originally more realistic-looking and had a bird perched on his head. *Many removed levels have concept art such as Beach Bridge, overlooking the sea and some ships, Amber Tracks, a minecart level in either the Volcano or Cliff, Treetop Village, a level similar to the treetop levels from the original Donkey Kong Country, Dusky Cliffs, somewhat resembling Crumble Canyon but at night, Old School, a level made of red pipes, Gameboys, NES controllers, and Game & Watches, and more levels in the Golden Temple such as Banana Coaster, Paper Cutouts, Wacky Blocks, Pudding Wonderland, Virtual Boy Tracks, and Crackers and Pudding. None of these were added to the world replacing Golden Temple in Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D either. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword *The Hylian Shield originally had the same design as the Twilight Princess one. *Moldarach had a smoother design and its boss arena was originally an area that looks like the Great Tree. *The Whip originally had a skull and was called the Skull Whip. *The Loftwings were more cartoonish. *The Black Stone is in the code and could've been a counterpart of the White Stone, AKA the Sealing Spike. New Super Mario Bros. 2 *The name New Super Mario Bros. Gold was considered for this game, but due to some of the levels not being very coin-themed, it was renamed to New Super Mario Bros. 3 due to being the third installment in the New Super Mario Bros. series 2. *The number of coins would originally have an "x" next to it, as in the original, but this is changed in the final version. *The athletic theme used to be the same as the New Super Mario Bros. Wii theme, but was remixed with the added vocals in the final version. *Originally only 5 coins were given for each consecutively defeated enemy under the effects of the Gold Ring. In the final version, the amount of coins rewarded is 5, 10, 15 and 20 for the first four golden enemies defeated consecutively and 50 after that. *The underground section of World 2-1 was designed differently than in the final version. In the final version, the pipe led into a room with brick blocks at the end, blocking another exit that could only be entered via a Gold Flower. This part wasn't in the early version. Also, in the same level, the area just before the Warp Pipe exit of said section was also designed differently. *Originally, the Reznor boss fight had the same music as the Koopalings Tower fight in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but this was changed to a remix of the Super Mario World Boss theme in the final version. *The pipes in World 4-2 were originally purple instead of the current red, and the brick blocks were gray instead of the current brown. *The title screen music originally had different vocals. *The coin table, that tallies up every coin collected, originally had a sack icon with Mario's 'M' emblem on it, similar to Money Bags. This icon was changed to three different stacks of coins in the final version. There's a very slight chance of this being because of Mario not being the only character. *The names of Solo Play and Co-op Play, were originally One Player and Two Player, respectively. In most translations, other than English, the modes are still called One and Two Player mode. *The shockwave from a Thwomp slamming into the ground was originally purple but is yellow in the final version. *Jump Blocks made different sounds than in the final version. *When Mario hits a flagpole it makes a more upward sound effect in the final version rather than a downward in the early version. *World 1-Cannon is a bit redesigned in the final edition. *Platform Panic Pack was named the seventh Coin Rush DLC pack instead of the eighth. This implies that Coin Challenge C was intended to be released as number six, and that Gold Classics Pack was not originally supposed to exist. New Super Mario Bros. U *Miis were originally going to be playable in all modes, but Story Mode does not support Miis. *Boost Mode was originally known as Assist Mode or Assist Play. In early builds, it worked similarly to the final version, except that Blue, Purple, Red, and Green Boost Blocks kept their symbols at all times, and they did not release coins. Instead, a separate smaller Boost Block with a coin symbol did that. These types of Boost Blocks would appear only if the Wii U GamePad player tapped on the screen twice. Boost Mode also seemed to lack the Boost Star and special Boost Mode properties. *Boost Rush Mode has not changed a lot from the earlier builds, except the Coin Meter was below the Coin counter instead of the timer. *Artwork for the Deep Cheep enemy exists for this game, even though the enemy itself does not appear. They were later included in New Super Luigi U. *As shown by the screenshots below, the HUD of the game was originally more like New Super Mario Bros. Wii's, with the white font for everything besides the Coin counter, which had orange instead. Later on, the HUD font was changed to a more opaque and metallic font. *Originally, Warp Pipes had a brighter and more plastic-like look, similar to their predecessors, but in the final version, they are darker having a more metallic look. *The Acorn Plains map looked substantially different in an early build. The map was significantly less detailed, the Acorn Trees did not show the Super Acorns, the mushrooms that leaded to Mushroom Heights were just red, the map had two red Toad Houses, with the green Toad House in a different spot, there were two Enemy Courses instead of one, and the spot where the Balloon Baby Yoshi was was gone, implying that Baby Yoshis could not be taken into any levels or that the option was not programmed yet. A bridge also extended from the level which Yoshi Hill will later become, implying that Yoshi Hill (or the level that was there in the first place) would have had a secret exit that skipped Mushroom Heights and Rise of the Piranha Plants. *Originally the Painted Swampland had pipes that were primarily green, while the final version has pipes of varying colors. *The E3 2012 trailer showed an Acorn Plains level with Bubble Baby Yoshi, tilting mushrooms, and Hammer Bros.. This level might've been an early version of Rise of the Piranha Plants, but otherwise, it's absent in the final game. *Acorn Plains Way, Mushroom Heights, and Spinning Star Sky were named Course 1, Course 2, and Course 3 respectively in E3 demos, presumably to avoid spoiling the world names. *Acorn Plains Way has gone through various changes since the original showing during June 2012's Nintendo Direct, mostly in the main grassy area. Most noticeable is that the pipe leading to the sky sub-level has been moved further back in the final build and the hidden area near the Midway Point was much shorter and more narrow. *Baby Yoshis in E3 builds did not vocalize the chorus at all. Later builds had Balloon Baby Yoshis vocalize the chorus, though the other Baby Yoshis remained silent. Glowing Baby Yoshi in the E3 2012 trailer had the ability to glow brighter when the player shakes the Wii Remote, though a sound effect did not accompany it. Balloon and Bubble Baby Yoshis do not come out of eggs in Question Blocks, unlike in the E3 demo, and are found only in the main map. *Peach's Castle seen in Acorn Plains Way had its colors more faded out in early E3 builds. Super Mario 3D World *Click here for Super Mario 3D World.